The Ultimate Life Form
by Don Mufasa
Summary: The Ultimate Life takes his first steps as a living being. Already he is caught between the realities of peace and war...just what has Shadow been created for, and where will this path lead? Raised aboard an isolated colony aloft in space, there is much that awaits Shadow in this thing the humans call, "life".
1. Prologue - Newborn

This is the prologue for a fanfiction I've been wanting to write for a long time. A story that begins by exploring shadow's deepest origins, before assault on the ark and the tragic death of his only friend. I want to explore Shadow as someone who was fully sentient from the day of their birth, and his first experiences with life. And hopefully...it'll go a lot further beyond that too :)

_**All characters herein are the original products of Sega and their partners in creating the game respectively. I make no claim of ownership to any of them, and any new or original characters not present in the games are designed for the express purpose of building the world in this exploratory fiction.**_

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I am the ultimate life form.

I was created by Dr. Gerald Robotnik to be superior to all beings. To what end…I know not.

"Shadow, good work today. You grow stronger and stronger—it is impressive." Dr. Gerald's voice echoes through the speakers. I shrug. It's not as though these little robots could really challenge me. All around me lay tattered pieces and chunks of machines that were pitifully outclassed by this unusual power I wielded. They did their best with all their firepower, but in vain. I could run circles around them and take them apart with my bare hands, and if not that, then I could summon energy to destroy them. The humans could not do this, but even so, there must be a better reason for them to put me through this. I was new to this place, these surroundings, this..."life" they called it. I still did not understand everything about these creatures that had made me.

I returned to the platform on the other end of the chamber, and a glass case fell around me before the platform rose upward. After a few minutes I exited and proceeded forward for a while until I came to one of the gazing platforms. They were rooms along the edges of the Colony, with large windows through which one could see space. On this particular platform, a huge blue sphere loomed beyond the window. It was a beautiful thing, and for some reason it stirred my eyes every time I saw it. Something about it seemed familiar, and drew me to it. It alone made this platform my...what do the humans call it? My favorite.

"Here again Shadow?" The doors whirred shut as the doctor entered.

"Professor Gerald." I turned to face him. He stood beside me and stared upon the big blue object as well. Then he turned to me with a smile.

"Tell me, Shadow, do you know what that is?"

I turned my gaze to the blue once again. "I can't say. But it seems to radiate energy. Is it another colony?"

"Of sorts, you could say." Dr. Gerald nodded thoughtfully and returned his gaze forward. "We call that Earth. I suppose you could call it the 'Mother colony'. It is there that we come from, along with the Ark. Many, many beings live upon that planet. It is our home."

"Home?"

Professor Gerald chuckled. "Most of the time you're very intelligent and sober in your behavior, but every time I see you here I'm reminded that you're very very young. I forget how new you really are, you're not even a month old. You have much to learn." Gerald stroked his beard for a minute before continuing. "Home, is a place where you can find peace. It is a place where you may relax yourself, body and mind, and just be. Where you simply enjoy the fact of existing."

"Peace..." It was nice thing to think about. The thought gave him a quiet happiness, yet he felt strange. The training they had put him in recently was decisively not peaceful. In fact, it was teaching him to endure and react to violence...

"Professor. What is the mother colony like, is it dangerous?"

He mused for a second. "Sometimes. The Mother Colony is different. It is vast, so much more than our ark, and infinitely more wild. For centuries my kind have tried to tame it, but it remains a thing of freedom. There are animals there, and beasts, both peaceful and violent. There are also beings like us, sentient, who are manifestations of peace and war unto ourselves. Oftentimes it is we who create our own dangers, our own monsters, and we must work to face them down." He paused. "But if I had to answer, no Shadow. The Mother Colony is more beautiful than it is dangerous, and it is one of a kind. We must protect it."

I felt a change in the professor. "Then...does the danger lie elsewhere, in the darkness?"

He was silent, gazing at the great blue sphere, then he smiled. "Perhaps you've had your fill of combat for today. If you're truly so curious about peace, then there's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Is it someone who can teach me about peace?"

"Indeed, she's come to live with us here on the ark. Her name is Maria, my granddaughter."


	2. Act 1 - Promises

_**All characters herein are the original products of Sega and their partners in creating the game respectively. I make no claim of ownership to any of them, and any new or original characters not present in the games are designed for the express purpose of building the world in this exploratory fiction.**_

* * *

The Ultimate Life Form

Act 1: Promises

The doctor and I left the viewing platform behind us and made our way around to the right half of the ark. The living quarters and apartments were arranged here, as well as number of things called "docks" which held large machines with turbines. I'd seen them departing the station from time to time, and evidently they'd been bringing people to and from the Mother Colony—the doctor had explained to me. Soon we came upon the central bay of the entry station, a large dome of a chamber made of criss-crossing metal bars and thick, blue station glass. A small human girl was standing near one of the pillars, her luggage nearby, when she turned and ran to hug Gerald after she noticed him.

She was smaller and thinner than any of the other humans I'd seen on here, wearing what they call a dress, long and light blue in color, but with white lab boots. She had long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, the same light skin as her grandfather, and her face had a kind, knowing look to it. She turned to me and smiled, then looked back to Gerald.

"Is this the one you told me about?"

He nodded. "Indeed, his name is Shadow. He is new to the Ark, and life in general, but he's incredibly intelligent. In fact, he will be showing you around the primary areas of the Ark. I must finish up my work for the day, but I will join you two later at dinner. Is that all right?"

Maria nodded. "Yes grandfather." Gerald smiled and turned, and headed towards the elevator. Maria turned back to me.

"Well, shall we?"

I hesitated, but complied, unsure why the professor wanted me to show her around. The workmen were taking her luggage to her quarters, I don't see why they couldn't show her around. Usually I'm just ordered to get more rest.

"Where are going to first?" She asked.

I thought a moment. Where to begin? Then it hit me-the beginning. "Let's go to the Genesis Labs. The place where I was born." I led her down a corridor or two until we came to a lift that transported us further into the ark. Soon we stepped off into a very quiet section of metal rooms, with tubes of blue liquid occasionally dividing the walls and mechanisms with blinking lights and air vents dotting the walls and cieling everywhere. Maria looked around as we passed through the pressure door.

"Why is it so quiet here?" She asked.

"The Genesis Labs are where they study and reengineer living beings. It's a sensitive process that requires controlled conditions, so there are many devices here to keep the conditions precise. Sometimes they even attempt to engineer new beings like myself."

"Attempt? Do they fail often?"

"I...do not know actually..." This made wonder for a moment. I hadn't ever met others like myself here, but I'd seen the living beings they'd reengineered. Perhaps I was the first they'd ever "made".

"Really? You don't have any brothers or sisters?"

"What is a brother or sister?"

The girl stared at me, eyebrows raised. "Well, they're male and female siblings. A sibling is someone related to you, that was born of the same mother and father." She explained, yet I was still confused.

"Mother?...Father?..."

"Grandfather's right, you really are different." She said in awe, and smiled. "I don't know how you were created, but on Earth, people are born by the union of a male and a female, who become their parents. All the people that are created by that union are brothers and sisters-siblings. To be siblings means they come from the same union."

"You mean they were created by the same people?" I asked.

"Yes, you could say that. I guess anything else my grandfather has created would be your siblings too."

I pondered all this for a while. I'd never given any thought to how the humans came to be, they'd always just been there since the beginning of my existence. I wonder, what were they like when they first came to be? Who explained to them the ways and the meanings of life?

"How exactly were you created Shadow?" She asked. I directed her inward, past the chambers where the modified creatures were kept, toward a lab covered in white walls and machines with several huge, circular tanks filled with liquid.

"This center one is mine. They constructed me over the course of several months after long research, using a carefully coded mixture of DNA."

She walked around the tube and examined it. "What was it like when they took you out? Did it feel like waking up from a nap?"

"No, waking can't compare." I said. I stared into the tube, feeling the memories flood back to me. "When I opened my eyes, it was like everything flowed into my being. Light, sound, feeling; breath entered my lungs, blood pulsed through my veins. There was this vivid sense of being, a strong feeling that nothing has matched up to since. I didn't come awake, I came alive."

"That's beautiful. I wish I could remember my birth like that."

"You mean humans don't?"

She shook her head. "Actually, we're very small and weak when we're first born. We don't remember much of anything from the first few years."

"Hm. I'm starting to think I know less than the doctor believes."

"It's alright. You've got plenty of time to learn."

"I guess so. Let's head to the Data Library next."

And so our tour continued. I showed her the other facilities, in the order that I came to them after I was born. Along the way she taught me things as well, about humans, families, children, and society on the Mother Colony, or Earth as it's known to them. It was all so different from what I'd known on the ark, surrounded by machines and scientists. I couldn't fathom many of the things she described-I'll probably have to examine them in the hologram chamber. After dinner with the Gerald and the other scientists I showed Maria to my favorite place: the viewing deck that faced Earth. She marveled at the sight of her home, seeing it for the first time from so very far away. All that she had ever known sat before her, a single blue giant suspended in the endless black sea of space. I wondered what the ark looked like from Earth; could the humans see from over there? Did they marvel at us too? We sat there in silence for a time, until I remebered a question I never got to ask her earlier.

"Maria, you call professor Gerald your grand_father_...what does that make you to me?" I asked. She stared at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Well, I was born from someone born from my grandfather, technically I'm what one would call your "niece". Still, it'd be wierd for you to call me that since I'm older than you, so how about we just call each other family and leave at that." She caught my eyes and smiled before I could ask my next question. "A family is a group of people with a common origin Shadow. A common creator."

"A common creator..."

"That's right. That means we need to look out for each other and help each other out when needed."

"I see. I didn't know things worked that way on the Mother Colony. I've only ever had to defend myself. As beautiful as it is, it really is dangerous down there isn't it?"

"Life is hard, but family makes it easier." She smiled, gazing upon the blue sphere.

"So a family is a group of people with a shared origin, who use their powers for each other to survive in life."

Maria giggled. "Shadow, you make it sound like there's a battle to be fought."

"Isn't there always?"

"I hope not, but I wonder sometimes..." She frowned, her thoughts turning elsewhere.

"Well if there is, then I'll protect you. And the professor. I am the Ultimate Life Form after all, nothing can match me."

Maria smiled and looked back at me. "I'm glad. Just remember though, you're much more than weapon Shadow, you're a living being with thoughts and feelings. Don't let your whole life be one big fight. Just be happy. That's also what family is for, to give each other reasons to be joyous."

I stared at my hands and considered her words. "No one has taught me much about joy since I've been alive. Just how to take apart, to destroy, to survive. To use my power."

She looked at me sadly. "In that case, you really do have a lot to learn."

"How long will it take you to teach me?"

She laughed. "Joy usually comes pretty naturally, it's just keeping sight of it that's hard. There are so many things that can get in the way of it, and some people forget what it is at all."

"Then I have another reason to use my power." I clenched my fist. "To find out what it is to have joy, and protect it." I turned to Maria. "What is it that usually gets in the way and makes one forget?"

She laughed again. "That could take a while to explain, but I'll try and tell you about it over time while I'm here."

My heart sank. "But, what if I wake up tomorrow and I forget?"

Maria grinned. "Oh? The Ultimate Life Form doubts himself?" I stared at her, mouth open. I didn't know how to answer, but she continued. "It's okay Shadow, you're not going to forget that easily. Besides, we're family remember? If you ever forget what joy is, I'll remind you. I promise."

I relaxed and nodded. "In that case, I'll never let you die. I also promise—to protect you with all my strength."

After that, when I went to bed that night, I realized I now had a purpose. For the first time since I was born, I was beginning to feel truly alive.


End file.
